


Pearl Isn’t Common At All

by a_big_apple



Series: From now on, everything has to be about Steven [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Baby Steven Universe, Gen, Neopronouns, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Pearl, POV Peridot (Steven Universe), Robotics, mom pearl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26735833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_big_apple/pseuds/a_big_apple
Summary: Peridot's number one rival in the Engineering department disappears for two weeks for a "family emergency."
Relationships: Lapis Lazuli & Peridot (Steven Universe), Pearl & Peridot (Steven Universe), Pearl & Steven Universe
Series: From now on, everything has to be about Steven [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945915
Comments: 20
Kudos: 63





	Pearl Isn’t Common At All

It’s a little after 11pm when the email from her Robotics and Mechatronics professor comes in. _Peridot,_ it reads. _I believe you partnered with Pearl for the final project. She’s contacted me to inform me of a family emergency, and won’t be in class for the next two weeks. In this circumstance you may choose a different pair of partners and join their group, or you may complete a robot on your own and I will take the situation into account in your grading. Please let me know what you choose in class on Wednesday._

Peridot blinks. Her mouth curls down into a scowl. _Family emergency? Unacceptable._ “Unacceptable!”

“What is?” her roommate sighs, sprawled in her bunk reading the latest volume of _Pretty Hairdresser_.

“Pearl!”

Lapis rolls a little to pin Peridot with a smirk. “Your nemesis?”

“My _final project_ _partner_. We just got started brainstorming our robot last class, and now ze’s had a _family emergency_ and can’t do the project!”

“Aww, are you going to miss hir?”

“Lapis!! There’s nobody else even close to as smart as I am in this class! Now I either have to partner with some _other_ clods or do the whole thing myself and there’s only a month left in the summer quarter!! CLODS!”

Her roommate laughs, one arm drooping lankly over the side of the bunk. Her blue fingernail polish is chipped. It’s irksome. “You know if you worked with Pearl you’d just be arguing the whole way through. I’ve never even _met_ hir and I can tell.”

“But we’d get the highest _grade_ ,” Peridot insists, getting up from her chair to stomp a little. It would be more satisfying if she had her boots on, but she gets a decent barefoot _slap_ on the wood floor. “That’s the most important! That _I’m_ number one, and _ze’s_ number two! Number one in that class won’t _mean_ anything without adequate competition!”

Lapis rolls a little further, to look at her properly. “I’ll still know you’re super smart,” she says, hand still dangling. “You don’t have to beat Pearl to prove that.”

Peridot breathes, and Lapis watches her. Then she slumps, sighs. “I guess that’s acceptable,” she says. “Can I repaint your nails? They’re annoying.”

Lapis smiles. “If you come up here. And bring up my water bottle.”

“Your vodka bottle.”

“Like I said.”

***

Pearl is indeed absent from class on Wednesday. And Friday. And the following week. Peridot spends her class time absently taking notes, sketching out design ideas for a robot she could conceivably complete alone in the time allotted, and trying to guess how many grade points below her number three in the class is.

She gets so used to Pearl not being there that she almost doesn’t turn to look when the door at the back of the room clicks open just as class is starting. There’s _something_ though, a breath, a murmur, a shifting of bodies in the room, that draws her attention.

Usually, Pearl sits in the front row, attentive, notebook and three pencils laid out with mathematical precision on the fold-out desk. Today ze slumps into a seat at the back corner of the room, dropping a bag from hir shoulder and unhooking another from hir back.

Ze looks exhausted. Pale— _paler_ —except for hir eyes, rimmed in red with dark sleepless blotches hanging beneath, like Lapis on the worst days. Ze pulls a notebook and one pencil from hir backpack, pulls up the desk and sets them out with hands that tremble, Peridot can see it even from here. Ze scribbles a note, and hir other hand curls protectively over hir chest. No, over a...bag? On hir chest?

Then Pearl leans down to press hir mouth to the thing, and Peridot realizes it’s an infant.

When Pearl looks up, Peridot is still craned around, staring; their eyes lock, but there’s no haughty look or irritated smile, or any emotion at all. Pearl’s eyes are utterly dead. When they flick away from Peridot and up to the board, she spins around and doesn’t look back for the rest of the class.

***

“A _baby?_ ” Lapis repeats, dumbfounded, when Peridot tells her the news. She’s painting today, curled up on the window seat, as spattered in orange as the canvas in front of her is. “Wow.”

Peridot paces, unsettled. “But where did it _come from?_ ”

“Um,” Lapis says, brow furrowing, and Peridot flaps a hand at her.

“I know where babies come from. But this one didn’t come from _Pearl._ How would ze hide it this whole time? Ze’s skinnier than you are.”

“So ze’s the other parent.”

“Possible. But why bring it to class? Jeopardize hir grade? Distract everyone? Why not leave it with the birth parent? Ze lives off-campus, ze must have been living _with_ someone.”

Lapis shrugs, chewing on her lip. “You said ze looked depressed.”

Peridot scowls. “So?”

“Sometimes bad shit happens,” Lapis replies. She’s using that voice, the one she uses when Peridot has missed something that is very obvious but she doesn’t want her to feel bad about it. “Just...maybe don’t ask about it, okay?”

“Gaahhhgghh! How will I find out if I don’t ask!”

“You’ll survive,” Lapis drawls, any softness gone; she spins the easel around. “What does this look like to you?”

“A pumpkin.”

Head tilted, Lapis considers; frowns. “Huh.”

***

Pearl is back on Friday, and so is the infant. They’re already tucked into the back corner again when Peridot comes in, the baby tipped sideways in the same pink sling from last time as Pearl holds a bottle to its mouth. Peridot takes a seat at the back too, three chairs away. If she can’t ask questions, she can at least _observe_.

Pearl is humming, very softly; ze strokes a finger across the baby’s cheek as it drinks. Ze looks just as exhausted as before, but there’s something a little brighter in hir face. Not a smile—not even close—but a sort of fascinated attention. Peridot watches until class starts, and then tries to put them both out of her mind.

It’s impossible. Sitting this close, she can hear the baby breathing—weird little snuffly noises and quick sharp puffs of air. The rhythm of Pearl patting its back is soporific; when it starts to make tiny, trembly bird-sounds that slowly register as _crying_ , Pearl gets to hir feet and sways to and fro across the back of the room, pressing hir mouth to its ear with a low, staticky shushing noise. It’s infuriating. Also fascinating. Peridot’s an only child; she’s never been this close to a baby that small before.

“—we’re missing from this design?”

She missed the question. _Focus, Peridot. Eyes forward._

But the professor is looking at the back of the room too. “Yes, Pearl?”

“There’s no indication of any force limiting on the speed,” Pearl replies; Peridot glances over again and finds hir bouncing in place. “That could be hazardous.”

“An excellent answer. What else?”

Peridot scowls, scrutinizes the schematic up on the overhead. “The end effector payload is too small for the purpose.”

The professor nods. “Well spotted.”

Three seats away, Pearl slowly eases back into hir chair; the baby is asleep.

***

After class, with Lapis’ advice nagging at the back of her mind, Peridot steels herself and makes what she hopes is a casual approach. When Pearl looks up from the bag ze’s repacking, hir eyes are ice. “Can I help you?”

“What are you doing for the robot project?” Peridot blurts, possibly too loud; Pearl’s hand curls around the baby’s head.

“I...don’t know yet,” ze admits, quiet, and Peridot tries to match the volume.

“I’ve done some work based on our original idea,” she says. “I can’t figure out how to make it feasible for me to finish alone. It would be much better for both of us if you’d partner with me again, even with the two weeks you missed.” For a long moment, Pearl stares at her, and Peridot is suddenly nervous she’s stepped over some kind of line she couldn’t see. “If...you want to,” she adds.

“Okay,” Pearl agrees with a tiny nod. “Could you email me what you have? I know we’ll have to meet out of class at some point but—my schedule is a little—” Ze glances down at the baby.

“I’ll send it tonight. And you can bring it, when we meet up. The baby.”

Pearl lets out a slow breath; this close, Peridot can see the baby’s wispy dark hair move. “His name is Steven.”

“Okay,” Peridot says. “You can bring Steven.”

“Okay,” Pearl says, looking up again.

“There’s no point in being number one in this class if you’re not number two. You’re the only one worth beating.”

Pearl blinks; hir mouth flickers, something that might have been a smile in a parallel universe.

“That’s presuming you beat me,” ze says, with the tiniest spark of something in it. Peridot scowls.

“Pearl.”

Ze bends, looking past Peridot to the door; there’s an intimidatingly tall Black woman standing there, wearing sunglasses inside for no reason Peridot can fathom. “Coming,” Pearl says, zipping hir backpack and swinging it onto hir shoulders.

“Greg’s got the van, we can drop you off at the studio.”

“I didn’t bring my—”

“I brought it.”

Pearl sighs, gusty enough to blow Steven’s hair again. “Thanks.” Then ze turns back to Peridot, shouldering hir other bag. “You’ll email?”

“Tonight.”

“Good.” Pearl nods, gives a squinty, exhausted blink. “Thanks, Peridot.” Then ze turns to hir friend in the doorway, and a moment later they’re gone.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first written installment in a collaborative human au created on discord, centered on college-aged Pearl, Garnet, and Greg (but mostly Pearl, because that's how we roll) raising Steven, and the family they build. I hope over time there will be more, by me and by others!


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